Exploring Mount Mehdi - Balochistan, Pakistan (7 Nov 2015)
Located in Balochistan province of Pakistan, Mount Mehdi (Jabal-e-Mehdi) Mud Volcano is one of the largest mud volcanoes in the world. Team of 18 amateur trekkers from Karachi decided to scale its over 1400ft summit which has otherwise been uncharted and unexplored up until now. The whole track consists of what we have termed as Mud Glacier emanating from its caldera. Mud Glacier is a unique geological feature consisting of solidified mud acting very much like an icy glacier, marred by extremely jagged surface and deep bottomless cracks, opening directly into deep hollow cavities and cave system inside which mud and water flows. This summit has no previously recorded evidence of any ascent or human activity in the past. Undeterred by extreme heat, difficult terrain, elevation, and lack of shade, the team scaled the summit in 5 hours, on a sunrise to sunset trekking day.
(This volcano is named by Mr. Hanif Bhatti, the travelling legend of Pakistan and Founder of PakWheels, as Mount Mehdi, or Jabal-e-Mehdi, to honor the effort of our team leader Muhammad Mehdi Hussain who spent years in research of these mud volcanoes, months on Google Earth for this particular one and also did a recent excursion of the mud glacier few weeks ago to find the safest (or least unsafe route to be correct) for the big ascent. This played a vital role not only in successful ascent but also bringing entire team safely with no casualties, injuries or even a minor sprain. We are also immensely thankful to Hanif Bhatti for providing extremely well organized and well supplied base camp).
The team comprised of:
Hanif Bhatti
Mehdi Hussain
Akbar Hussain
Saad M. Sheikh
Syed Maaz
Mohammed Ali
Saeed Ahmed Khan
Sara Syed
Shumaila Khan
Noor-Us-Saba
Saad Mahmood
Fouzia Saad
Zahra Minhas
Malik Lalani
Omer Asif
Umair A. Shahid
Tafseer Ahmed
Ebrahim Haq
Talha Kazi
Ghulam and his team
The journey started from the Base Camp on Makran Coastal Highway (Bhatti Camp). At the drop off zone, Akbar’s Brief Point, all gathered and took the briefing about the plan. After two kilometers of walk on the ground, at Camel of Hope camp, the mud glacier started. After half an hour journey on the Devil’s teeth terrain, we reached Dragon of Hope camp, which is a small place where few of us could sit down. After about another half an hour journey, we reached Ali Camp, in front of which was Saeed Camp. Both camps have place to sit in some temporary shade created by plate mountains. After about two hours of journey from there, we reached a place where the toughest part of ascent started. We call that point Saba point in honour of a lady who, despite her shaky legs and trembling body, could show the courage to reach up to that point. After about half an hour of intense climb on the toughest surface, we reached to the top. There are 3 vents of mud in the caldera of this volcano. The descent was as difficult and dangerous as the ascent and took the same 5 hours to come down to the drop zone.
Pictures credit : Saeed Ahmed Khan
Storyline by: Muhammad Akbarovich Hussainov
